ED 272 873 CS 209 893

AUTHOR Stensaas, Harlan S. TITLE The Development of the Objectivity Ethic in Selected Daily , 1865-1934. PUB DATE Aug 86 NOTE 31p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in and Mass Communication (69th, Norman, OK, August 3-6, 1986). PUB TYPE Reports - Research/Technical (143)-- Speeches/Conference Papers (150)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Editorials; *Ethics; Journalism; *Media Research; *Newspapers; * Reporting; News Writing IDENTIFIERS Journalism History; News Sources; *Objectivity ABSTRACT Since the most pervasive ethic of American journalism is that of objective news reporting (theapparently impartial reporting of verifiable data froma detached point of view), a study examined how and to what extent generalnews reports differed over time in terms of objective reporting.The news content in six representative daily newspapers for three 10-year periods (1865-1874, 1905-1914, and 1925-1934)was analyzed according to the following criteria for objective news reporting: it containsonly verifiable assertions, does not make claims to significance,and avoids statements of prediction, value, advocacy,or inductive generalizations without clear attributionto source. For the analysis 360 news reports--120 from each time period--werecoded from 90 weekday issues of the newspapers. Findings indicated that objective news reports increased progressively from the earliest period to the later period for each of thenewspapers. Wire news had no statistical effect on whether the news reportingwas objective or nonobjective in any of the three time periods. Use of authoritativenews sources and the inverted pyramid format ascended with theobjective story, though the inverted pyramid appears to have nadea faster ascent. The data also indicate that New York journalismwas ao less objective than that of other areas. Whilea study of these tine periods provided revealing data, further study is neededto investigate the progression of these aspects of themews report between 1874 and 1905. Five data tables anda four-page list of references conclude the document. (SRT)

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE OBJECTIVITYETHIC IN SELECTED DAILY NEWSPAPERS, 1865-1934

Harlan S. Stensaas, M.S. Ph.D. Candidate School of Communication University of Southern Mississippi

Abstract

This paper discusses objectivityas the underlying ethic of news reporting and explores its origjns. A content analysis of the general news reports of sixrepresentative U.S. daily newspapers found that objectivitywas not widely practiced in 1865-1874, was common in 1905-1914,and normative by 1925-1934. Incidence of objective reportingwas apparently not influenced by the introductionof telegraph and wire services and there is alsono apparent difference between news reports of New York Citynewspapers and those of other cities.

"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

Harlan S. Stensaas

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

Graduate Division Winner of the Carol Burnett/University of Hawaii/AEJMCPrize for Student Papers on Journalism Ethics

Supervising Faculty Member: Arthur J.Kaul, Ph.D.

Presented to Association for Education in Journalism & MassCommunication National Convention, Norman, Oklahoma August 3-6, 1986

cr BEST COPY AVAILABLE

`1) 2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE OBjECTIVITYETHIC

IN SELECTED DAILY NEWSPAPERS,1865-1934

The most pervasive ethic of Americanjournalism is that of objective news reporting,or the apparent value-free

impartial reporting of observableor verifiable factual data

from a detached, impersonal pointof view. Ob:;ectivity forms the core of the Code ofEthics of the Society of

Professional , SigmaDelta Chi. Other ethical matters such as payola, conflictof interest, withholding

information, and deceptionbecome ethical problems for the

news reporter because they compromiseobjectivity, bringing into question the impartiality,or purity, of the news

report. Advertising, businesspractice, and the opinion function may reston other ethical foundations, but

the news function, thenews story, rests squarely on objectivity. In a qualitative study of professional

journalists' perceptions concerningethics, Mills (1983)

found that most respondents equatedethics with objective news reporting.

Origins of the ethic of objectivenews reporting are uncertain and widely debated. Some have noted (Shilen,

1955; Bradley, 1985) that colonialprinters pledged to report the news factually, truthfully,and impartially but

1

3 2

were soon forced into other modes by conditionsof the times. Impartiality is not thesame as objectivity

(Bradley, 1985), though itserves the same purpose of

protecting the newspaper's credibilitywith its readers. An

objective report must necessarily beimpartial, but an

impartial report need not remaindetached and impersonal, nor need it report only verifiable data. At what point did

the non-objective journalism of theFederalist Papers become

the journalism of the "unvarnishedfact"?The telegraph and

press associations may have influenced it(Shaw, 1967; Carey 1981), it may have beena response to chaos in the

international scene before WorldWar II (Smith, 1980), it

could have risen to serve the needsof a commercial

newspaper press in the mid-1800s (Schiller, 1979,1981), or

perhaps it was a defense againstpropaganda, news management

and after WorldWar I(Schudson, 1978).

Blankenburg and Walden (1977) foundthat economy may be a rationale for objective reporting.

Among 14 charges against the Americannewspaper press

brought by Wilmer (1859) in what Mott(1950) called "the first book devoted wholly to criticismof the American

Press" (p. 311) were that thepapers published misleading reports, withheld useful information,practiced Toryism and villainous deceptions. One may conclude, then, that Wilmer, a former editor, expected complete unbiased,untainted reports of news happeningsas the legitimate obligation of

4 3

the newspaper press in the mid-1800s.

Crawford (1924) devoted threechapters to objectivity

in what is regardedas the first major academic treatiseon

journalistic ethics, but notone of the 18 codes andcanons of various papers andpress groups which he appends to his

work mentions the word "objective"or "objectivity."Nearly all, however, demandreverence for facts and impartiality in

the news report. Crawford connects objectivity trthe

scientific method and states that"verifiable facts are the

only sure way to dependableconclusions" (p. 28). He

provides a rationale for journalismas a professional

service occupation whichserves the public by providing the

necessary facts for dependable conclusions. Ross's (1911) handbook on newswritingemphatically demanded objectivity in

newswriting, quoting froman editorial in the St. Louis

Republic that the reporter must"keep himself, his

prejudices, preferences, opinions,out of the story

altogether" (p.17).

Carey (1969) suggests that journalismwas among occupations redefined in the 1890s andthat the was at that time "converted downwards" froma literary role to a technical role in theprocess of professionalization.

Professionalization, of course, bringswith it the concern for ethics. Barber (1963) lists the constructionof a code of ethics as the second ofseven steps through which an emerging profession passes. Credible arguments have been

5 4

advanced, however, that codes of ethicsare inappropriate

for the journalism profession (Black &Barnev, 1985). Will Irwin. in his 1911 series for Collierson the American

NeKspaper (Irwin, 1969) credits James GordonBennett with

invention of news, a novelty whichsucceeded the editorial

journalism. News was demanded by the readers ofthe penny press and the supremacy of the editorial faded. "And before

the Civil War we find ourpress transformed. The preacher

has become a gossip, the evangela bellman" (p.12). Irwin placed supreme importanceon news being Free from "undue

bias and taint" (13. 30) and lists truthas the primary ethic of news reporting (p. 41). A decade later, Walter Lippmann

was to sharply distinguish between news and truth,saying

that news signalizes an event whiletruth brings to light hidden facts and sets them in relationto one another (Lippmann, 1922, p. 226).

In the post World War Iera Lippmann (1920) declared that the war raised serious questionsabout the quality of information provided to mass audiences(pp. 49-51).

Lippmann believed newspapers should be conduitsof information. "The news of the day as it reaches the newspaper office is an incredible medley of fact, propaganda, rumor, suspicion, clues, hopes,and fears, and the task of selecting and ordering thatnews is one of the truly sacred and priestly offices ina democracy" (p. 47).

And further, ". . . the health of society dependsupon the

6 5

quality of the information itreceives" (p. 80).

In the New Dealera, FDR's Secretary of the Interior

Harold L. Ickes challenged the"objective point of viewand fairness" of the metropolitannewspaper press, making

specific reference to the Canonsof Journalism of the

American Society of NewspaperEditors. He Charged that the

papers violated the canons by misrepresenting,distorting, coloring, and lying in thenews reports (Ickes, 1939, pp. viii-ix).

The report of the Commissionon

in the post World War II periodfocused attention on the

notion of reporting facts incortey.t and ushered in a

continuing discussion of thesocial responsibility of the press in reporting news. Reconciling social responsibility

and interpretative reportingwith the long-standing ethic of objectivity creates dilemmas. In this mode of reporting,

journalists are no longermere conduits for facts but become

involved at least to the extent ofindicating what readers may do with the facts. Several researchers distinguished among such ethical orientations among journalistsas neutral and participant or objective andactivist (Johnstone,

Slawski, & Bowman, 1972; Drew, 1975;Janowitz, 1975;

Phillips, 1977; Starck & Soloski, 1977;Culbertson, 1979; Lichter & Rothman, 1981). Others explored attitudes of professionals toward objectivity (Tuchman,1972, 1978; Boyer, 1981; Hartung, 1981; Levy, 1981).

7 6

Based on accumulated literature,origins of the

objective news reportingmay be placed somewhere between the

rise of the penny papers in the 1830s andthe post World War

I 1920s, a span of nearlya century. And although the legitimacy of objectivityas a news ethic was already being

questioned in the 1950s (Shilen, 1955),it came under

increased attack in the 1970s and 1980s(Tuchman, 1972;

Smith, 1980; Hager, 1982; Glasser,1984) and while much was

found wanting, no one has proposeda satisfactory

replacement (Christians, 1977; Korn,1984). Objectivity, then, is a primary ethic ofnews reporting, but its origins and destination are hazy at best.

Statement of the Problem

This study examined thenews reports in selected representative daily newspapers ofthree 10-year periods

1865-1874, 1905-1914, and 1925-1934to determine how and to what extent the generalnews reports of these periods differed over time in terms of objectivereporting.

Need for the Study

Although most previous studies placed therise of obiective reporting somewhere between1865 and 1934, only two studies (Shaw, 1967; Schiller, 1931)included systematic eAaminations of the newspapers themselves,and both of these contained narrow referents. Shaw examined Wisconsin daily 7

newspapers in election years from 1852 to1916 and studied

only news reports mentioningnational political candidates:

Schiller examined crime news onlyas it appeared in the

National Police Gazette fora five-year period. As neither

study can safely be generalized to thegeneral news report, a broader study is needed.

An examination of the influenceof wire news on

objectivity also is needed. Shaw (1967) found that the

introduction of the telegraphwas accompanied by a sharp

rise in objective political reports. Although the view that

telegraph ushered in objectivereporting was supported by Carey (1981) and others, itwas disputed by Schudson (1978)

who argued that wire servicecould as well have caused

newspapers to seize an opportunity fordifferent kinds of reporting and (t0 that objectivereporting did not become

the norm in the late nineteenthcentury when the was growing (pp. 4-5, 31-35).

Study Questions

This study attempts toanswer the following questions concerning the general news report:

(1) To what extent is objectivenews reporting evident in the general news reportsof selected U.S. daily newspapers in each of the three 10-year periodsand how does this quality of the news report differamong the periods?

(2) At what point did objective reportingbecome the

9 8

standard reporting method for thegeneral news reports of U.S. daily newspapers?

(3) Does wire news differ fromnon-wire news in terms of objective reporting within andamong the time periods under study?

(4) Is there evidence that the generalnews report of newspapers in New York City differ from othermajor dailies in terms of objective reportingwithin and among the time periods?

(5) Is objective news reporting relatedto (a) the

practice of citing authoritativesources of information and' (b) the practice of structuringthe story in inverted pyramid form?

Delimitations

The study is concerned with thegeneral news report

of daily newspapers only. Other content, such as feature

stories, editorials, advertisements,columns, photography, and other non-news material is beyondthe scope of the study. The ethic of objectivity isa function of news reporting. Although "truth" and "fairness"may be demanded in other content, the demand forobjectivity is generally restricted to that content offeredup as "news."

For practical reasons, the study alsoexcludes specialized news content suchas sports, financial news, and social items when theseare set apart from the general

10 9

news report. Objectivity is usually demanded of

professionals in thoseareas, but a study of general news

reports provides a workable designfor study of the rise of objectivity as a news ethic.

Definitions

Objective News Reports are definedfrom principles

outlined by Hayakawa 11978,pp. 32-47), journalism textbooks

(Hage, Dennis, Ismach, & Hartgen,1983, pp. 14-29; Tzard,

Culbertson, & Lambert, 1983,pp. 95-100; MacDougall, 1982,

pp. 25-52, 76-94) and previous studies(Shaw, 1966, pp. 57- 60; Shilen, 1955, p. 2). A news report is a timely item

reportinp an event, situation,opinion, or other matter of

interest to readers of thenewspaper. It is an objective

news report if it contains only verifiableassertions, does

not make claims to significance,and avoids statements of

prediction, value, advocacy,or inductive generalizations

without clear attribution tosource. As here defined,

objectivity is a reportorial form. No attempt is made to

"second guess" motives of thewriter or editor or to

ascertain what was not reported, If the writer (editor) has not strayed beyond observableor verifiable data, the story may be considered objective. That this definition permits potentially biased material to becounted as objective need not concern us because the extent towhich an objective reportorial style is used provides evidenceof the presence

ii 10

of the ethic of objectivity.

Wire News is that contentwhich clearly arrivedby

telegraph or other instantaneoustransmission whetheror not it is labeled as such.

Authoritative Sources are thosenews sources holding "official" positions suchas judge/ police, mayor, or senator.

Inverted Pyramid is the standardjournalistic form with summary lead followed byexplanation of the lead, then further details.

Method of Study

To resolve questions aboutcharacteristics of the news report in American dailynewspapers a content analysis

of six representative dailieswas conducted covering the three 10-year periods.

Berelson (1952, p. 18) definedcontent analysis as "a research technique for the objective,systematic, and

quantitative description of themanifest content of communication," and stated that itmay be used to describe trends in content and to discoverstylistic features.

Krippendorff (1980, p. 21) definedcontent analysis as "a research technique for making repiicableand valid inferences from data to Cteir context."He suggested that

Berelson's requirement of quantificationwas too restrictive and that qualitative methodsmay be successful in some

12 11

endeavors (p. 22). Stempel and Westley (1981,pp.120-121) argued that qualitative and quantitativeare not mutually

exclusive in content analysis, suggestingthat

qualitativeness is subsumed in therequirement that content analysis be systematic.

The problem at hand is that ofdescribing

objectively, systematically, andquantitatively the general

news report of American dailynewspapers of 1865-1874, 1905-

1914 and 1925-1934 in terms ofqualiti relating to

objective reporting and tocompare the reports of the three 10-year periods.

The Sample

Selecting a sample for thisproblem involves three stages:(a) the newspapers, (b)issue dates, and (c) reports

within the issues. The appropriateness of the samplemust be determined by the study andthe phenomenon or variables

to be.observed. Wimer and Dominick (1983,pp. 143-146)

correctly observed that, while usualprocedures for

sampling are generally applicable,sampling of content involves special considerations.

The Newspapers. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to draw a random sample ofall daily newspapers published in the United States duringthe three periods of this study. But for a study of thenews story as a form, a selection of a handful of leadingnewspapers should suffice,

13 12

and it should not matter which editionis used. In

selecting newspapers for this study,sampling error was not a particular problem. This was fortunate because the study was limited by available materials..

Six newspapers in the .study includerepresentatives

of geographic regions North, South,and West, ttmo New York

City papers, and one prominent regionaldaily. Selection of these particular newspaperswas part of the research design,

not a sampling procedure. Selection of newspapers for the study was necessarily limited bythe number of daily

newspapers in continuous publication throughthe period of the study, and by availability offiles and microfilm to

study. All but one of the sixnewspapers are still in

publication. Each has been prominent in Americanjournalism throughout the period of the study andcould be presumed to

have exerted more than passing influenceon the shape of

journalistic practice over time. All, save the regional

daily, published in major metropolitancenters, and most

survived a variety of competitors. These papers may be

expected to reflect the accepted standardsof news reporting

practiced in this country during the periodof the study.

The group included a Northern metropolitandaily, the Chicago Tribune, which began publishingin 1849; a prestigious Southern daily, the AtlantaConstitution, which began in 1868; a West Coast daily, the SanFrancisco

Examiner, which began in 1865;a prominent regional daily,

14 13

the Hew Orleans Times-Picayune whichbegan in 1837; and two

New York City newspapers, the New YorkTimes which began in 1851, and the New York Tribune whichbegan in 1841, became

the New York Herald-Tribune in 1924and closed in 1966. The Issues. The periods of the study encompassed

7,800 weekdays, 2,600 in each of thethree 10-year time

frames. The concern, rather than samplesize, was to select

the dates systematically from thetime periods. The sample was drawn from a population consisting ofnews reports

published on weekdays in six selectedAmerican daily

newspapers published during the three periods ofthe study..

Although some writers traceobjective news reporting to the

penny press in the 1830s, there is generalagreement that

the it grew and developed sometimebetween the Civil War,

along with the introduction of thetelegraph, and World War

II, a span of nearly 100years. This sample was drawn from a time span extending from the post CivilWar era to the pre-World War II era.

The papers were sampled in stratifiedsamples of five weekday issues each within each10-year cluster, resulting in 30 issues in each period fora total of 90 issues. Each newspaper was sampled in a constructed week in eachtime period with issue dates selected randomlyto fill the array.

Saturday and Sunday editions were eliminatedfrom the sample because the study dealt with the generalnews report which is best exemplified by weekday editions. Weekend editions

15 14

may be expected to vary widely among papers andacross time in both form and content. Thus, weekday issues were

expected to provide a more uniform samplethrough time and among the papers.

The Content. Four news reports were coded fromeach issue, two from the majornews page and two from a secondary

news page. These were selected by dividing thepage into

quadrants and selecting the dominantnews reports beginning

in two of the quadrantson the page, starting with a random

selection of quadrant, then rotating. If no news report

began in the quadrant, the report inthe next quadrant was

selected and rotation continued fromthat point. Reports which continued to anotherpage were considered as complete

on the page where they began and only that partof the

report appearing on thatpage was studied. Although some

early writers were known to appendnon-objective moralistic conclusions to stories,newspapers of that day typically did not jump stories. It was decided that, where jumped stories

were concerned, that matter appearing before thejump would provide adequate opportunity to determinewhether the story met the criteria for objectivity.

Unit of Analysis

The unit of analysis used to classify contentin this study was the news story. This unit was both the recording and context unit because it isthe "natUral" unit.

16 15

Information about the contentwas recorded within the

context of the story. The concepts being studiedwere best

understood in context of the whole storyand there appeared

to be no very good reason for resortingto smaller

mer.surements, such as column inches,assertions or words.

Early research studies (Berelson,1952, pp. 145-146: Budd, Thorp & Donohew, 1967,p. 35) indicate that counting items

is about as productive es themore laborious task of measuring smaller units.

Catepor:es of Analysis

Categories of analysiswere those of objectivity,

origin of the report (wireor non-wire), source of the

information (authoritativesource or other source), and form

(inverted pyramid or other form). Stempel and Westley

(1981, pp. 122-124) advisedthat categories be pertinent to

the objective c the study, functional, and manageable.

They suggested that the system ofcategories remains

manageable if there areno more than 10. Budd, Thorp, and Donohew (1967, p. 39) advised thatcategories be

appropriate, exhaustive, and mutuallyexclusive.

Findings

A total of 360 news reportswere coded from 90 weekday issues of the newspapers. These included 120 news reports from each of the periods: 1865-1874,1905-1914, and

17 16

1925-1934. Results for each issuewere recorded on a coding

sheet for later tabulation and analysis. A subsample consisting of 107. of the datawas recoded on the objectivity

variable by the author to determineintracoder reliability

and by a second coder to determineintercoder reliability.

Using Scott's pi formula, intracoderreliability was .84 and

intercoder reliability was .76. Coefficients of .75 ormore

are generally regarded as acceptable usingthis method (Wimer & Dominick, 1983, pp. 152-156).

Objectivity and Time Period

Objective news reports increasedprogressively from the earliest period to the laterperiod for each of the

newspapers. (See Table 1.) Non-objective reports appear to have been the norm in the1865-1874 period with objective

reporting gaining the ascendancybefore or during the 1905-

1914 period. Objectivity appears to be firmlyestablished by the 1925-1934 period with 80 percentof the sample being objective in that period.

Chi-square analysis (2, N = 60) yieldedsignificant results for the Examiner (9.23, /24%01),the Chicago Tribune

(13.17, p<.01), and the Constitution(6.45, p<.05). Results.

for the remaining papers approached thechi-square value of 5.99147 needed for p=.05 (5.90, p<.101for the Times-

Picayune; 5.22, p<.10, for the New YorkTribune; and 5.71 p<.10 for the New York Times). For the total group (2, N Tr-

18 17

360), the result was 40.15, p.001.

Statistically true differenceswere found in frequency of oojectivenews reports among the three periods:

1865-1874vs.1905-1914,>C2(1,N=240)=14.08, p<.001:

1905-1914vs.1925-1934,>C2(1,N=240)=5.40, p<.025:

1865-1874vs.1925-1934,>C2(1,N=240)=36.87, p .001.

Obiectivity and Wire News

Table A-2 presents frequenciesand percentages of

objective and non-objective wirenews compared to non-wire

news by time period. Chi-square analysis indicated that

wire news has no statisticaleffect on whether the news is

objective or non-objective inany of the three time periods.

Effects of News Sources and StoryForm

There appears to be a strongrelationship among objectivity, inverted pyramid, anduse of authoritative

sources. Statistically significant relationshipswere found between objectivity and theuse of authoritative sources,

N = 360) = 28.02, p.001; betweenobjectivity and use of inverted pyramid form, >C2(1,N = 360) = 36.16, p<.001:

and between inverted pyramid andauthoritative sources,

360) = 26.40, p.001. The citing of authoritative

sources and the use of inverted pyramid formincreased progressively from the early time period1865-1874 to the later time period 1925-1934 (See Tables A-3 and A-4.)

19 18

New York Newspapers vs. Non-New YorkNewspapers

Throughout, the results for thetwo New York City

newspapers were similar to the othernewspapers. Chi-square analysis indicated that any differencesin the two groups were result of chance. (See Table A-5.)

Summary of Findings

Objectivity in the generalnews report was not widely

practiced in the 1865-1874 period (40.87.),was common by

the 1905-1914 period (65.87.),and was normative in the 1925-

1934 period (807.). Percentage of objective reports does not

thffer significantly between wireand non-wire groups nor

between New York and non-NewYork groups within time periods. (See Figure A-1.)

There appears to be a strong interrelationshipamong the qualities of (a) objectivenews reporting, (b) inverted pyramid format, and (c) citing ofauthoritative sources.

These three qualities appear to rise togetheracross the time periods to form the modernnews report.

Discussion and Conclusions

Although objective news reportswere evident in the general news report of the 1865-1874 period,such reports were not normative at that time. In that period, nearly two-thirds of the reports were non-objective. By the 1905-

1914 period, about two-thirds of thereport was objecl.ive,

20 ha0 haha 4!sa ON hJ OD ha 0 G4ha G4 4 G4ON G4OD G4 0 4ha 4 4 ON4 4 1D01 C)01 ha01 401 ON 01 OD or 0 orha oh4 ONor ODoh C)s4 s4hJ s44 ONs4 s4CO OD0 haOD 4OD ONOD ODOD 40 hJ 4 ON OD C) 0 0 0. 0

4C40 Ln a 20

and in the 1925-1934 period 80 percentwas objective. Reflected in these figuresmay be the rise of the reporter

and of reporting as a profession. The shift from editorial

press to news press began in the 1830s withthe demand for

news in the penny papers (Irwin, 1969) butthat century

was fading into this one before "theage of the reporter"

dawned. And it may have beensome time latLer before the

objectivity ethic became firmlyestablished. Newspapers of the 1865-1874 period often carriedas much editorial

material as news meterial andsubordinated both to

advertising content. By 1905 the editorialpage had taken form and was clearly segregatedfrom and subordinated to news, both in quantity and in display.

The authoritative newssource and the inverted

pyramid format ascended with theobjective story, though the

inverted pyramid appears to havemade a faster ascent. News

reports of the 1800s usually citedno sources at all. In 1905-1924 news stories withoutsources still appeared and

authoritative sources, though still inthe minority (42.57.),

were used twice as often as in the 1865-1874 period. After 1925 about two-thirds of thenews reports cited

authoritative sources, but many satisfiedthe objective story's demand for attribution witha form of passive voice non-attribution in which the reporterappears to disavow being the source of the information withoutactually listing a source. Such phrases as "was said to have been,""it was

22 21

reported tonight," or "it is understoodthat" appeared with some frequency, perhaps as ameans of satisfying the

technical demands ofan objective report-

An often stated opinion thatNew York journalism is

the bellwether of Americanjournalism is not supported in

this study. It may well be that journalisticinnovations

originate in the hinterland andmove to New York. As Irwin (1969) noted of yellowjourralism, "The seeds of yellow

journalism . . . sprouted at St. Louis and SanFrancisco during the eighties; theycame to fruition in New York,

thrashing-floor for changesin journalism, during the early

nineties" (p.16). The data in this study suggestthat the rise of objective newsreporting, inverted pyramid, and

authoritative sources were thesame in New York as elsewhere.

The widely held opinionthat objective reportingwas the result of increaseduse of telegraph and news syndicates needs to be re-examined. While results of this study do not necessarily disprove the relationship,there is no support for the theory in these results.

While a study of the time periodsincluded here provide revealing data, further studyis needed to investigate the progression ofthese aspects of the news report between 1874 anri 1905. Further study could also assess whether the publication of the HutchinsCommission

Report on Freedom of the Press in 1947resulted in a shift

23 22

in the ethic of objectivereporting. The Commission's

agenda for the press is generallystated as a demand for

"social responsibility" and includesthe principle that facts be reported in context andthat the press serveas a torum for exchange of comment andcriticism, 3ever,11 research projects since then havedistinguished among orientations of journalistsas objective and activist or participant and observer (Johnstone,Slawski, & Bowman,

1972; Starch & Soloski, 1977) butstudy of the news report in this context iS lacking.

24 23

Appendix

Tables Table 1

Objective News Reportsby Newspaperand Time Period

Newspaper 1865-1874 1905-1914 1925-1934

Examiner 407. 707. 857.

Chicago Tribune 257. 657. 807. CoPstitution 45% 807. 757.

Times-Picayune 457. 50% BO%

New York Tribune 457. 607. 807.

New York Times 457. 70% 807.

Group Total 40.87. 65.87. 80.07.

Table 2

Frequency of Objective (OHR) andNon-Objective (NNR) News

Reports by Time Period: sire Newsvs. Non-kire News

Wire News Non-Wire News

ONR NNR ONR NNR

1865-1874 23(527.) 21(48%) 26(34%) 50(66%)

1905-1914 34(63%) 20(37%) 45(68%) 21 (327.)

1925-1934 35(717.) 14(297.) 61(86%) 10(147.)

All Periods 92(637.) 55(37%) 132(62%) 81(38%)

25 24

Table 3

Effectof TinePeriod on Use of Inverted Pyramid(PYR) in

Objective News Reports (ONR) andNon-Objective Reports (NNR)

ONR NNR

Time Period PYR Other PYR Other >C2(3,N = 240)

1865-1874 4 45 4 67 vs. 1---- 137.62p<.001 1905-1914 68 11 70 11 vs. 3---- 9.80p.025 1925-1934 90 6 20 4 vs. )---- 175.07pes.001 1865-1874 4 45 4 67 a All Years 162 62 54 82 36.16p.001 a N = 3609 df = 1.

Table 4

Effect of Time Periodon Citing Authoritative Sources (AS)

in Objective (ONR) and Non-Objective(NNR) News Reports

ONR NNR

Time Period AS Other AS Other. >C2(3,N = 240)

1865-1874 13 36 14 57 vs. 1---- 22.51p.001 1905-1914 38 41 13 28 vs. 3---- 19.42p<.001 1925-1934 72 24 8 16 vm. 1---- 68.02(34-001 1865-1874 13 36 14 57 a All Years 123 101 35 101 28.02p.001 a = 3609 df = 1.

26 25

Table 5

Frequency of Objective (ONR) and Non-Objective(NNR) News Reports by Tine Period: New Yorkvs, Non-New York Newspapers

New York Non-New York

ONR NNR ONR NNR

1865-1874 18(457.) 22(557.) 31 (397.) 49(617.) 1905-1914 26(657.) 14(357.) 53(667.) 27(347.)

1925-1934 32(807.) 8(20%) 64(807.) 16(20%)

All Periods 76(63%) 44 (377.) 148(62%) 92(38%)

27 26

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